Spinlock celebrating improved industry standard rating

Spinlock, the award-winning designers and manufacturers of rope-holding equipment and personal safety products for water users, is celebrating a successful transition in industry standard from ISO9001:2008 to ISO9001:2015. The award of this rating is particularly significant, as due to system changes and work required, very few UK businesses have yet to upgrade their operations to meet the new standard.

ISO9001 quality management systems offer a wide range of benefits to an organisation and, in turn, their customers. The system helps businesses and organizations to be more efficient and improve customer satisfaction and therefore increase repeat business. ISO9001 is a standard that sets out the requirements for a quality management system that defines all the actions and outcomes of a business.

Spinlock Sales and Marketing Manager James Hall explains the benefits of the transition: "Spinlock have been ISO9001 approved since 2000, but took the opportunity to quickly transition to the new 2015 revision as it challenged us to review our systems and processes. The new ISO9001:2015 focuses on performance and improvement, along with risk-based thinking and a greater emphasis on leadership engagement. The change to ISO9001:2015 ensures that every stakeholder in the Spinlock business and everyone who interacts with our business can count on the best possible performance."

The Isle of Wight based company were audited over two days at both their design and manufacturing centres in Cowes by Force Certification A/S and received ISO approval in January 2017. The transition from ISO9001:2008 to ISO9001:2015 required approximately one year's planning and implementation, looking at all of Spinlock's systems and process from raw material to finished product and involving every aspect of the business from design, sales, production to quality.

Myles Uren who led the transition adds: "The new ISO has more of a focus on mapping out an evolving plan for continual improvement in a business, which is driven by the management team, rather than the more prescriptive style of the earlier standard. Continual improvement has always been a key focus for Spinlock across both our Hardware and Deckware ranges, so it is helpful to now have this process this formalised and audited within our ISO approval."